Managing anxiety

Hello, Kate here, creator of My Imagination.  I have created tools and strategies to help children manage anxious feelings and now I deliver courses teaching these strategies in a fun, interactive way.

Have you ever felt so anxious that your hear started beating faster and louder, your breathing became quicker and shallow, you felt sick and you could not think of anything else except whatever it is that is making you anxious?  Well I have!  And it is not joke.  It can be debilitating.

How did you deal with it?  Did you manage to face it, or did you avoid it?  Over the years I have been in many situations where I have felt anxious, most of which I tried to avoid.  Things like going to a shopping center by myself, putting air in my car tyres, walking into a restaurant or bar on my own, talking to a man, starting a new job….to name a few.  All of these situations used to fill me with absolute dread and would take all my courage to face.

To calm down my thoughts and feelings, I used deep breathing techniques, I repeated positive affirmations reassuring myself that everything is going to be ok, lots of mindfulness to calm my over thinking and to strengthen my mind and I did a lot of distraction techniques….. I would clean my house!

I have come a long way since then, and now I am much more aware of my thoughts and feelings and more able to manage them so the anxious feelings do not take over.

I think sometimes we under estimate how anxiety can affect others and expect them to just ‘get over it’.  Well it is not always that simple and it is very real.

What strategies do you use?